Slim pickings

It goes without saying that we’re a Hollywood-obsessed culture. With the amount of time the world spends poring over tabloids and gossip shows commenting on the waif-like weights of Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen, it’s a wonder how we can still maintain order on this planet. From the emaciated days of Clare and Rachel Wallmeyer – the anorexic Australian twins who’ve been starving themselves for the past 20 years – to the little girl who has been eating paper just to avoid consuming real food, we’ve viewed the broad spectrum of extremes people will go to for the sake of being thin.

A rail-thin model who had been fasting at a fashion show in Madrid recently died from heart failure prompting Spanish authorities to ban size zero models from its catwalks. Bony Nicole Richie has been spotted wolfing down burgers with her beau. Even Tyra Banks spoke out against being overly thin while Mary Kate checked her frail frame into an eating disorder clinic. Move over, Mischa Barton – a healthier version of thin is in, a step up from the freakishly skinny days.

The only things that should be immensely slim are not our body weights but the gadgets we tote around to make our lives easier. A new wave of thinness has blown in stronger than "Milenyo." Cameras and iPods have shrunk in size, along with laptops and plasma screens. Seems like everything has taken to a fad diet. The latest from Samsung holds to this as well. Their "Ultra Edition" line of cell phones is currently the thinnest on the market and are pretty powerful to boot.

With high demands for slender phones that you can slip into an envelope clutch or a suit jacket, Samsung’s Ultra Edition line offers three types of phones to satiate any techie’s skinny dreams. A candy bar (Ultra Edition 6.9 X820), a slider (Ultra Edition 12.9 D900) and a clamshell (Ultra Edition 9.9 D830) are on the market to make cell phone usage as fun as following Hollywood and the trends they set. Skinny silhouettes shouldn’t be limited to the stars and fashion but to something more effective, attainable and longer lasting.

The Ultra Edition 9.9 D830 clamshell is a lightweight handset outfitted with a two-megapixel camera that possesses a 2.3"-wide color display and an external memory slot for extra storage. The groundbreaking Ultra Edition 6.9 X820 weighs 66 grams and is 6.9mm deep, reflecting the age-old desire to be thin and sexy. Also loaded with a two-megapixel camera, it has a music player, functional keypad and a lovely beveled-cut surface for better grip. Sleek and durable, you’d be surprised at the wealth of features compressed into this teeny telephone. The slide-up Ultra Edition 12.9 D900 is the thinnest slider to come equipped with a mighty 3.13-megapixel camera and a vivid 262K color screen. It’s hard to beat a fashionably designed phone that’s highly functional as well.

YStyle is young, stylish and mobile and cell phones should follow in the same vein. Extremely thin is in when it comes to phones but not always in fashion when taken to dangerous levels where health is being risked. Who wants to make out with a corpse? How can skeletons look sexy? It isn’t Halloween. Opt for thin in technology and go ahead, have that last slice of pizza.